1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to coding in a communication system, and is more particularly related to space-time codes having spatial diversity and temporal diversity.
2. Discussion of the Background
Given the constant demand for higher system capacity of wireless systems, multiple antenna systems have emerged to increase system bandwidth vis-à-vis single antenna systems. In multiple antenna systems, data is parsed into multiple streams, which are simultaneously transmitted over a corresponding quantity of transmit antennas. At the receiving end, multiple receive antennas are used to reconstruct the original data stream. To combat the detrimental effects of the communication channel, communication engineers are tasked to develop channel codes that optimize system reliability and throughput in a multiple antenna system.
Almost all digital wireless communication systems employ some form of channel coding to protect the raw data from channel noise and multi-path fading effects. In single transmit antenna systems, channel coding only adds temporal redundancy to the raw data aiming to exploit the temporal diversity provided by time varying wireless fading channels. The availability of multiple transmit antennas allows for an additional degree of freedom in code design. Space-time coding was introduced in by Tarokh et al. [1] as a two dimensional coding paradigm that exploits the spatial diversity provided by multiple transmit antennas in quasi-static flat fading channels.
To minimize the effects of the communication channel, which typically is Rayleigh, space-time codes have been garnered significant attention. Rayleigh fading channels introduce noise and attenuation to such an extent that a receiver may not reliably reproduce the transmitted signal without some form of diversity; diversity provides a replica of the transmitted signal. Space-time codes are two dimensional channel codes that exploit spatial transmit diversity, whereby the receiver can reliably detect the transmitted signal. Conventional designs of space-time codes have focused on maximizing spatial diversity in quasi-static fading channels and fast fading channels. However, real communication systems exhibit channel characteristics that are somewhere between quasi-static and fast fading. Accordingly, such conventional space-time codes are not optimized.
Further, other approaches to space-time code design assume that channel state information (CSI) are available at both the transmitter and receiver. Thus, a drawback of such approaches is that the design requires the transmitter and receiver to have knowledge of the CSI, which increases implementation costs because of the need for additional hardware. Moreover, these approaches view the transmit diversity attending the use of space-time codes as a substitute for time diversity; consequently, such space-time codes are not designed to take advantage of other forms of diversity.
Based on the foregoing, there is a clear need for improved approaches for providing space-time codes that can be utilized in a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) block fading channel. There is also a need to design space-time codes that can exploit spatial diversity as well as time diversity. There is also a need to improve system reliability without reducing transmission rate. There is a further need to simplify the receiver design. Therefore, an approach for constructing space-time codes that can enhance system reliability and throughput in a multiple antenna system is highly desirable.